2010-06-05 Brug Zwolle

On June 5th, 2010 an Open Day of Building was held. An event at which many construction sites opened their doors to the general public to show their progress and to interest people for construction and building. My son (18) is studying Civil Engineering and has a genuine attraction to railroad construction. That, combined with my general interest in railways, made these two boys set out for a days outing to the construction site of the new railroad bridge over the IJssel near Zwolle.

1The Hanze line is a 50 km stretch of railway under construction that will connect the stub railway Amsterdam - Lelystad to the main hub of Zwolle, seriously shortening travelling time between Amsterdam and the north of the country as well as relieving pressure from the more than overloaded line between Zwolle and Utrecht.

The new railway crosses the IJssel river just before Zwolle (arrow)

2An aerial photo I found on http://www.nu.nl/ shows the old railway bridge of the Utrecht-Zwolle connection, and the pillars of the new bridge just south of it. Note the high water levels flooding the winter bed and also note how the old bridge severely obstructs the flow of the river. The new bridge will be almost 1 km long and allows the IJssel to flow freely. Moreover the new bridge is built at standard Rhine height, allowing ships unobstructed passage under the bridge. The old bridge is an obstacle to both river and railroad traffic in turn.

22Zwolle Rangeer (Zwolle yard), used for storage of surplus stock. Here scores of Mat '64. Outdated and taken out of service, waiting for the cutter's torch.

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25View straight into the spine of the bridge

26An information stand of ProRail

27Do not climb on the red beams

28The concrete box that will contain a normal roadbed, producing far less noise than a traditional iron construction with the track directly attached to it.

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30Screw thread XXL, forming the base of the catenary poles

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32An old catenary portal, dating from around WW2

33The old bridge. Note how narrow an opening the bridge leaves for the river to pass. The old bridge leaves a minimum clearance of only three meters, so needs to open frequently, obstructing free traffic of both ship and railroad. The new bridge leaves a minimum clearance of nine meters

34Sorry, couldn't help photographing him again, I'm simply proud of him ;-)

35And of the road. The bridge has not been completed so far as to safely allow a complete passage on foot.

36I sure would have liked to walk on the bridge itself

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39Despite the saturday, work was still going on.

40Four sets of ICMm-III

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42This curve was once the fright of every steam engine driver. Leaving Zwolle station they had as good as no distance to gain speed, take that sharp curve and than run up the steep incline onto the bridge. Imagine a dark rainy night, slippery rails, a heavy train behind you and needing every bit of power you can coax out of your engine, and you know these men were masters of their trade!!! A stall was no rare occasion here.

43The weird bumbs on the roof are the driver's cabs. Originally the front contained two heavy doors which would open at coupling two sets, allowing passengers and crew to cross from one set to the other during the ride. These doors proved extremely prone to malfunction, often disrupting punctual departure. They definitely closed some years ago and when these railcars were refurbished, the doors were removed and replaced by a light weight sheet, saving a few tons of dead weight on the front truck

44The bridge's drawing

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46We made a walk around the grassland south of the bridge to get a view from the water

47A reminder of the approaching summer

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50Aaaaah, well worth the trouble

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52On one side of the bridge a bike bridge is attached. A gap has yet to be closed. The bike bridge can also be used for emergency services...

53... lessons dearly learnt from the 2006 fire where a simple inconsequential fire turned into a blaze for no other reason then that the emergency service couldn't get to the train. Thankfully no one was hurt, but railroad traffic was severely disrupted.

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55Ah, erm yes, boat traffic

56Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue??

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59 afbeeldingen

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